1961

Actually I wonder if Ros got cut. The dialogue indicates that she works at a brothel outside Winterfell but the episode ends with Tyrion at the Crossroads Inn.

1962

Yeah, Petyr had the entire pedobear thing going there. Totally creepy. I liked how they switched it from the books (the Hound tells Sansa the story), but this way it gives Petyr a way to to start messing with Sansa.

I was surprised at how little of the tourney was in this episode. But remember that the tourney was two days long, and so the second day will be next week. Enter the Knight of Flowers!

The entire Ros character is interesting. She was in the original pilot (the one that was largely discarded for various reasons), but the producers liked the actress so much they basically wrote her into the story. Granted, she’s a side player, but still. Just about the only “original” character to date. (We saw her as the whore who was blowing Tyrion in the first episode. And, yes, Jon was right. Her rack = Magnificent.)

1963

To me, they continue to rob the story of a lot of its impact. It’s important that the Sandor is the one that confides in her. Also, Sam’s story of why he’s at the wall seems a lot less effective when we aren’t told his father was gutting an animal in front him. That’d be a great scene to film to use as footage as Sam told the story.

I know they don’t have time, but it’s shame so much is lost in the compression.

Edit: And this feels weird being in this position, because I’m normally open minded about adaptations. I actually think they may have been better served deviating more and rewriting entire plots or threads, if they aren’t able to utilize Martin’s structure effectively due to time constraints.

Still, I’m beginning to get used to what they are doing and there’s still plenty to like. Buf if someone was watching this and trying to decide if to read the books during the season or after, I’d say after.

1964

Just because Sansa already knows doesn’t mean Sandor can’t confide in her later. It’s just going to give additional flavor to Sansa’s interactions with him before that.

1965

I want this :

1966

Maybe, but given how pressed for time they are, I doubt they’ll retread the story, at least in the same way. Anyway, I guess it’s a minor point, but feels larger to me because of how much that moment impressed itself upon me.

1967

The smile on Ser Carcetti’s face as he finished telling Sansa the story of the Hound and the Mountain was GLORIOUS. Aiden Gillen is kicking all sorts of ass as Littlefinger.

1968

This bummed me a bit as well as it was a significant moment for me while reading the book.

1969

This is the first episode I’ve gotten to see. Big thumbs-up overall, amazing acting and production values, good dialog for the most part. I agree, though, that a lot of the expository scenes feel forced and unnatural. IIRC Sam tells Jon his backstory much later in the book, and you can tell he’s ashamed of it and probably hasn’t told anyone else, so it says a lot that he tells it to Jon. Here it’s just like “So how’d you end up here?” “Oh, my dad threatened to kill me” sort of thing. Switching Sandor’s backstory reveal to Littlefinger also seems weird, although the actor does a great job with it. But most of all, it’s just hard for anyone to handle that well. We’re at the tourney, knights come up, and then it’s like all the sudden Littlefinger is telling the audience everything they need to know about Sandor and Gregor. Littlefinger could almost have turned to the camera afterwards and gone “Did you get all that?”

Other than that aspect, though, everything was great. I loved the new scenes they added, particularly Jory with Jaime outside Robert’s bedroom. The guy playing Jory is bringing him alive much more than he was in the book.

1970

Wow! How good is this series? Totally caught me by surprise.

I normally like my fantasy high, and from what I’d casually gleaned of the books, there wasn’t any wizardry and stuff in them so I passed. But I thought I’d give this a try when the preview clips started to intrigue me.

Just superb. The story is great, the acting is absolutely top notch all-round, and the production values are excellent. Really gripping. It’s the first thing in ages that I’ve been hooked on and I find myself really looking forward each week to the next episode.

Could be improved by a big of magic and some dragons, but what the hey :)

Looking forward to checking out the books now.

1971

Three things: you’re in for a great show, you might want to use this other non-spoiler thread, and it would probably be best to never, ever click on this one again.

1972

I guess I’m going against the tide here and damn if I never thought I’d agree with Mordrak.

The episode started a bit too quickly. The jump from Winterfell to the Wall actually had me confusing Jon with Robb until I noticed everyone was wearing black and realized we were at Castle Black. I felt like they could have done a little more up front and then wasted less time on the scene between Viserys and Doreah which did little but establish the fate of the dragons, not something that was too important. After that though the episode got more into its stride.

I actually really liked the scene between Jaime and Jory (and when Jory mentioned ‘the day that I die’ I winced a little inside) and man oh man are they telegraphing Theon’s heel turn pretty blatantly. By this time in the book it’s pretty well established that Theon’s a bit of a toolbag, but being the only noble boy Robb’s age, the two are good friends.

Hey, look, it’s Ghost (oh, and hey, we saw some Grey Wind, too!). Nice red eyes, too. That scene could have been done a little bitter, but fuck, I was just glad to see Ghost. Rast looks like he could be a Baratheon bastard, though. Kid looks a hell of a lot like Mark Addy. I liked the extra scene between Sam and Jon. It’s nice that they gave Alliser a little more to say than ‘hey dudes, I’m one of the least developed villains you’ll ever meet, there is no good side to me and no good reason for me to be such a shit’ which is pretty much most of his dialog in the book. Giving him a little humanity is a good thing. Just so long as he remembers to be a worthless shit when it counts!

But, and apparently I’m just a big nerd for being disappointed at this, giving the Hound’s secret to Littlefinger was just unnecessary. There is a scene in the books where Littlefinger sits down and chats with Sansa as they watch the jousting. When the Hound unseats Jaime she says that she knew he would win and Littlefinger quips that she should share her knowledge with him so Renly will stop taking his money. It’s not only a little moment between the two, but it shows Littlefinger betting on Jaime, which ties into his lie about the dragonbone hilted dagger. Giving the Hound’s story to Littlefinger takes away from the moment in the books when the Hound drunkenly tells the story, then threatens to kill her if she tells anyone, though. Not only that, but Petyr starts out with “hey, have you heard the story about the Hound and Ser Gregor?” and then ends it with “but hey, it’s a super big secret so don’t tell anyone”. All while telling it in public. It was just silly and, yeah, whatever, I’m a nerdbird for caring. I just like the Hound and hate seeing one of his big early moments taken away from him.

The end was great. I loved seeing everyone whip out their swords, guilted into helping Cat. Though the part at the beginning of the last scene could have used an extra 30 seconds or so to establish beyond ‘lifting up her veil’ that Catelin was trying to go incognito. Even if it was just Ser Rodrick saying ‘hey, it’s Tyrion, the guy who tried to have Bran killed, hide your face, dawg’.

Anyway, I still liked it quite a bit, it way more worked for me than didn’t, but I was really, really disappointed with that one decision. The Hound is one of my favorite characters and this did him a disservice. That one misstep makes this my least favorite episode so far, though being the least loved in such great company is kind of the opposite of a backhanded insult.

1973

I am consistently amused and impressed by the way the producers pair endless exposition with bewbs. Well done producers.

1974

Unfortunately, my wife found the bewbs exposition scene boring. Maybe because she’s not into bewbs. She says she’s enjoying it, but likes the Borgias on Showtime better. My counterargument is that the Borgias doesn’t have Peter Dinklage.

1975

But that’s Renly’s job.

1976

I just read that part of the book again over the weekend. Sam tells John his backstory either his first or second night after meeting him.

1977

That’s how I felt when I first saw it. Then I watched the episode again and I think the scene and dragon descriptions helps to set the background of the story with some details that we would pick up reading the novels but that otherwise might have to be visually conveyed in the show. Arya’s going to stumble through the hall with the dragon skulls, at which point viewers who haven’t read the books will remember the Viserys/Doreah talk and it will help to pull the story together. The scene itself wasn’t very good, but I think it serves its part to forward the story.

1978

The Vyseris/handmaiden chat was probably the lowest point in the series so far, with the tv-only dialogue and a combination of low-quality sex writing and poorly timed exposition. In comparison, the Littlefinger/Hound reveal was almost passable, although again I just don’t understand why such formative moments are taken away from the characters they develop (like Catelyn’s support for being the Hand because of her ambition, and her “bastard” moment). But goddamn there’s no surer way to hit rock bottom with HBO than when they go overboard with that bullshit.

Overall, though, meeting the Mountain and seeing some of his handiwork was well worth it, and I’m pleased to see a little fire in Catelyn at last.

1979

I am watching it as we speak, and I agree - it’s just terribly paced from start to finish.

1980

No one else commented on this, but-

Well played, sir!